(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information processing techniques, and particularly to an information processing technique that enables efficient use of a band in wireless communication.
(2) Description of the Related Art
In recent years, many devices which can be used with wireless LANs are commercialized and it is possible to use various applications with ease and convenience. Furthermore, it is known that the advent of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11n has allowed a faster and more stable wireless communication, and thus, for example, streaming of a high-image-quality video can be performed at home using Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA).
However, as the number of wireless LAN devices increases, there are cases where a user cannot execute a service smoothly because a band available for a wireless LAN device is overwhelmed. Furthermore, in a 2.4 GHz band, there is a problem that radio wave interference frequently occurs when the band is used by various devices, because the 2.4 GHz band is an Industry Science Medical (ISM) band.
Therefore, in general, a 5 GHz band with less interference is used for a wireless signal that requires high real-timeliness, such as that for video. In contrast, the 2.4 GHz band is sufficient for use in content downloading or web browsing. However, if all terminals are connected through the 5 GHz band as there is less interference, the 5 GHz band becomes overwhelmed, which is like putting the cart before the horse. Therefore, it is preferable to determine which of the 2.4 GHz band and the 5 GHz band to use, depending on the level of real-timeliness required for the wireless communication.
As a technique for using such wireless bands efficiently, there is known a line acquisition method for a wireless IP phone service using a wireless LAN that controls the wireless band, by (i) controlling wireless IP phones connected to SSIDs in an integrated manner as shown in FIG. 25 and (ii) restricting a communication traffic volume to be equal to or less than a threshold set for SSIDs of an access point terminal (see Patent Literature 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-214657).
However, with the effective usage of wireless LAN band in the line acquisition method having the configuration described above, the communication traffic volume per se is restricted equally for all of the terminals. Therefore, a band is unnecessarily allocated to a terminal which is not requiring a band, which makes it impossible to properly allocate a band for a terminal which is requiring a band. Furthermore, restricting a communication traffic volume is not always effective, since in general a wireless band cannot be quantitatively manipulated.
The present invention has been conceived in view of the above-described conventional problems and aims to provide an access point terminal capable of improving an efficiency in use of the wireless band, by moving a terminal to an appropriate operating frequency without controlling the communication traffic volume.